Editing Mama Mathers (section)

====Affecting Esoteric Senses====
Mama Mathers' "quantum tripwires" also apply for any senses derived from powers.<ref name="II6.2 e2">Rain typed out his message, and held out the phone for Sveta, Capricorn and I.  Vista and Foil drew close enough, and so they got a look too.<br>
:''If you see mama you will start to see things.''
:''If you hear… start to hear things.''
:''Etc for touch/thinker senses''
:''She can see/hear/thinker through these things''<br>
I nodded.  I’d known and inferred most of that. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/04/17 Excerpt] from [[Pitch 6.2]]</ref><ref name="weaverdice eEvasion">It is through use of her power that the Mathers Fallen can gather in larger numbers, form communities, and still elude the PRT and other authorities.  Whatever powers or technology one uses to scout out or find them, there’s the very real danger that the observers will find Mama Mathers staring back at them, before she takes their sanity, possibly on a permanent basis. - WD Organization: Fallen</ref><!-- https://docs.google.com/document/d/12LtYsBEGUbngNPJRoAiL_QZyR_h__8hFO57bBVSDAAA/edit --> Her power acts as a harsh anti-[[Thinker]] ability that allows her to keep her kin covered from snooping eyes.<ref name="R2">The Fallen are slippery, and the reason they haven't been wiped off the map is that they utilize a cell structure and have some cover from parahuman abilities. Valefor's mom in particular. A thinker doesn't want to go scanning tracts of rural/unpopulated area for missing kids if it means a chance of seeing ''her'' looking back at them. Because if they do, then they'll likely end up in a brief coma followed by a year and a half of something like being convinced the walls are bleeding spiders. She has kids with buds from the same shard and farms them out to other branches of the family in exchange for some muscle (Eligos being some of that). Not that same degree of punishment or screening, but stuff in that general vein. - [https://redd.it/5cuin5 Wildbow on Reddit]</ref> The effect of her power is more intense if you use enhanced perception powers on her.<ref name="R4">'''chandra381:''' Honestly I think Wibblebub is wasted in any other genre than horror.<br>[...]<br>Quick q: is she the same person as Valefor's Mom that WB mentioned earlier while describing the Fallen, who had some kind of anti-clairvoyant countermeasure?<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' The effect is more intense if you use enhanced perception on her. - [https://redd.it/7zen39 Wildbow on Reddit]</ref>
* [[Valkyrie]] could not engage Mama Mathers and her group,<ref name="II5.6 eValkyrie">“We’re not in a position to give you a ''lot'' of firepower,” Chevalier said, emphasizing ‘lot’.  “Valkyrie cannot engage that group of Fallen, and I’m tied up elsewhere with diplomatic roles.  Many other Wardens and subordinate teams are busy.  Advance Guard is on standby.  We’ll ask them to assist you.” - [[Shadow 5.6]]</ref> presumably because Mama Mathers would affect [[Glaistig_Uaine#Power_Vision|Valkyrie's power vision]] and any senses from Valkyrie's shadows that perceived her.
* [[Teacher]] could use Melody's power to hitch-hike Mama Mathers' senses because Mama Mathers (now a member of [[the Taught]]) willingly allowed them to. The use of sensory scrying on her would fail otherwise.<ref>“I’ll use your power, Melody.”<br><br>Melody was a young Asian woman with the side of her head shaved.  She had some tattoos, but she had more flesh that had been cut out with a scalpel and left to heal as scars, raised lines, bumps, and swirls on flesh.  Some had been self harm, some had been body modification.  She had her demons, and those demons had chased her into his company.  She had been one of the first he had recruited after Gold Morning, when he had become big enough to require managers.<br><br>She approached him, hands clasped behind her back.  She met his eyes, and opened them wide, then wider still, until two eyes became one, the one eye became something larger than her face, occluding the rest of her, the room, and them him, in that order.  He could feel it overlap and intersect his lower face, the bridge of his nose, and his own eyes, so they became one singular portal as well.<br><br>“Who?” she asked, a voice from nowhere to nowhere.<br><br>“Let’s begin with their leadership.  Chevalier.  I sent Christine to deal with him.”<br><br>Two spots opened, each a window, showing another viewpoint.  The two were slightly different, a left eye and a right eye, and as they filled his new perspective, they widened and overlapped until they were ''his'' eyes that he looked through.  He felt a heartbeat, felt shoes tapping their steady beat as the wearer walked.<br><br>He felt lips part and greet him with a, “Hello…”<br><br>⊙<br><br>“…I’m so glad you could join us, Teacher.”<br><br>Heads turned, thralls and hostages alike.  She smiled.  Teacher was only here for her.<br><br>It wasn’t often that others were looking through ''her'' eyes.  It required that she let them.<br>[...]<br>More than that, Teacher had given her a ''world'' of faithful, and for that, she was willing to let him share her eyes, share her awareness. - [[Interlude 15.z II]]</ref>
* After [[Chevalier]] sensed her with his [[Chevalier#Powers_and_Equipment|power vision]], she invaded that seeing and took hold of it. As Mama Mathers wanted Chevalier to join her side, she made him see specific memories of herself as well as specific visual representations of feelings.<ref>He’d looked at her earlier, and now she filled his eyes.<br><br>But more than anything, he had sensed her with something else, something beyond sight.  He had seen her aura, and now she invaded that seeing, took hold of it.  He could look at those blessed with power and know them on a profound level, see memories, history, feelings, and the nuances of power, often in abstract.<br><br>So she gave him that.  She gave him ''herself''.  Memories of herself as a pregnant teenager, praying, ''praying'' for recourse.<br>[...]<br>With this and more, she assaulted Chevalier’s eyes with more deep truths that the eyes normally couldn’t see.  With visual representations of feelings he would know to be her fact.  What it felt to be worshiped, what it felt to give all of oneself up to faith.  The security of giving oneself over. - [[Interlude 15.z II|Interlude 15.z]]</ref>
* When a nearby [[Love Lost]] searched for her feelings with [[Love_Lost#Emotional_Manipulation|her emotion sense]] to act as bait, Mama Mathers' eyes could detect and track the source of this power through a wall.<ref>Her head turned as she felt a power reach for her and find her.  Close by, someone searched for her feelings.  Christine looked at a wall, and her eyes tracked the source of the power through that wall. - [[Interlude 15.z II|Interlude 15.z]]</ref> She reached back before Love Lost could find her and adjusted the feelings Love Lost sensed<ref>She reached back, faster than they could find her, and impressed her feelings onto them.  She looked at them, and she found the emotional equivalent of frozen-over wasteland.  She tested that wasteland, with a feeling of tranquility, and found little traction.  She gave them hope, and there was something there, something that lingered, that stuck to the walls of the heart.  She gave them a feeling of being loved, and found more ground.<br><br>Hope and love.  She twisted at feelings and tried different variations.  Romantic love.  Not so important to this particular heart.  Love for a job.  More important, but not the most important thing.  Familial love?  There.<br><br>The woman slowed as the emotions swelled in her breast. - [[Interlude 15.z II|Interlude 15.z]]</ref> until she found the exact feeling to cause Love Lost to reel with emotion and possibly start crying.<ref>It took only a few more adjustments before she found the right kind of familial love, and then found the exact feeling that struck closest to this wasteland heart.<br><br>The love of a mother for the daughter she had lost, and the ''certainty'' that she was loved back.  Christine had felt it when Elijah had been days old, before his eyes had flashed as they had.<br><br>The woman had stopped.  She might have been crying now.<br>[...]<br>Things gave way.  An attack from below, cutting the floor out from beneath them.  A furrow, cutting into the center of the room, ten feet wide.<br><br>Ala fired, but the tremor in the ground distorted her aim.  Christine could feel the target was alive and well, still reeling with emotion. - [[Interlude 15.z II|Interlude 15.z]]</ref>
* According to [[Dinah]], if she looks at her future, then Mama Mathers starts appearing in all futures Dinah can see for some time. Dinah could not act against Teacher as long as he had Mama Mathers; however, with a lot of effort, she was still able to slow him down when she could.<ref name="II16.3 e1">“Tell me about this noise.”<br><br>“Other thinkers, complicating factors, power-induced randomness, blind spots.  An example would be how I couldn’t act against Teacher as long as he had Christine Mathers.  If I look at ''her'' future then she starts appearing in ''all'' futures I can see.  I slowed him down when I could but that was a lot of effort and a lot of risk he’d target me.  There are a few things like that.” - [[From Within 16.3]]</ref>
* She is immune to [[Valefor]]'s power,<ref name="II15.z eVial">It had not been easy.  It had been the stark opposite of easy.<br><br>Particularly when her child, still suckling at her breast, had looked up at her with eyes that ''flashed'', and had asserted his will over hers.  Blessed child.  Cursed child.  One in a million, among those who were one in thirty-thousand.<br><br>She had been saved by people who had worked at this facility before.  They had given her power and then by faith or by fortune her power had outstripped their ability to deal with her.  They had asked her for favors and she had done only some of those favors, as she pleased.  They had, after all, enabled her to hold her Elijah without being his slave. - [[Interlude 15.z II]]</ref> presumably because affecting his senses can allow her to evade his power.
* Although Mama Mathers is not on the list of blind spots for [[Contessa]] as of the [[Attack on Teacher]],<ref name="II15.7 eContessaBlindSpots">Not as I or my power understand circumstances, and my power understands everything outside of the blind spots that are Teacher, Valkyrie, the Simurgh, and two broken triggers that authorities aren’t aware happened.” - [[Dying 15.7]]</ref> according to [[Tattletale]], she could be considered a soft blind spot as Contessa can look but generally does not want to.<ref name="II17.9 e2">“Okay, walk me through it.  I’ll fact check.  Blind spots.”<br>[...]<br>“Mama Mathers.  Soft blind spot.  She can look but doesn’t want to.”<br><br>“Yes.” - [[Sundown 17.9]]</ref> However, Contessa is still capable of creating a path that involves Mama Mathers: she specifically sent [[Rain]], [[Love Lost]], and [[Colt]] to confront Mama Mathers' group with instructions to follow<ref name="II15.8 eInstructions">“You, Love Lost, and Colt, go that way, you’ll face the Fallen.  Be aware of how far a voice reaches.  Circle back toward Capricorn at the stairwell, then keep going forward.  You’ll find the ones taking custody of Chevalier.  Save him.  Then go back to the stairwell.”<br><br>My heart sank.<br><br>“I-” Rain started, another question or statement.<br><br>Love Lost grabbed him, pulled him closer, then pushed him away, all in a fluid movement, managing not to shred him with her claws in the process.<br><br>They left. - [[Dying 15.8]]</ref> while also arranging events elsewhere so that they could successfully defeat<ref name="II17.5 e1">“You could really use my team on this,” I said, still quiet, subdued, like I was a lesser person in the aftermath of it all, despite my best efforts.  “Holding them back doesn’t make sense.  Lookout can keep an eye on Shin, and we really need one.  Precipice has gotten past Mathers twice and he was the one who got her.  [[The Mathers Giant|Mathers]] is, I’m guessing, why the precogs aren’t on this.” - [[Sundown 17.5]]</ref> Mama Mathers and rescue Chevalier's group without being stopped by Teacher.<ref>Teacher blinked.<br><br>“Five squadrons should converge on Christine’s position at Turbine Four.”<br><br>“I’ll arrange it,” his soldier said.<br>[...]<br>Then they saw Rain, with Love Lost and Colt.  Colt was covered in dust.  Chevalier and his team followed behind.<br><br>They ran into thralls, and found those thralls didn’t have much fight in them.  As the music sounded throughout the facility, cutting in and out as Lookout managed to get her grips on a system, then was blocked or shut down, the thralls gave up their efforts.<br><br>“Is this A or is it C?” Imp asked.<br><br>“C,” Tristan said, trying not to think about what that meant.  Two members of Breakthrough were supposed to die. - [[Interlude 15.z II]]</ref>
* If a clairvoyant perceives her, she could affect their power to such a degree that they could end up in a brief coma and remain infected for months afterward.<ref name="R2" /> As temporary loss of sanity and being strapped to a hospital bed are severe problems, these capes avoided scanning for her and her group.<ref>We had the details.  Thinkers had always avoided scanning for the Mathers family because using a thinker power on or near them had a way of causing ''severe'' problems for the thinker.  A strapped to a hospital bed screaming kind of severe. - [[Shadow 5.7]]</ref><ref name="weaverdice eEvasion" />
* [[Wildbow]] speculates that if [[Screamer]] or [[Skitter]] perceived Mama Mathers, she would break them by affecting their senses.<ref>'''Alison:''' Screamer would be a good hard counter to mama<br>Just steal her voice<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Screamer would sense/hear Mama and can't steal voice without doing analysis, at which point Screamer is broken. - Conversation with Wildbow on Cauldron Discord</ref><ref>'''aeegoem:''' I mean, I can see why the Fallen were such a problem, pre-GM<br>When you have someone like her in your pocket<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Someone posted on reddit asking if Taylor could take down this Fallen camp.<br>[...]<br>Even ignoring the fact that she's gone & never coming back... there's Mama. - Conversation with Wildbow on Cauldron Discord</ref>

Even technology can trigger these tripwires.<ref name="discord eTechnology" /><ref name="weaverdice eEvasion" /> For example, a fragment manifested itself as a "ghost in the machine" when [[Lookout]]'s flying camera perceived Mama Mathers.<ref name="II6.3 eGhost">“I’m getting footage of the Fallen evacuees, two cameras out there, one up close to get the people and one pulled back to track light sources and get another angle.  My pulled-back is ''freaking out''.”<br><br>“Freaking how?” Sveta asked.<br><br>“Literal ghost in the machine freaking?” I asked.<br><br>“Yes!  Yes, exactly.  I’ve never heard that term before but it fits exactly.”<br><br>“How has a tinker never heard-” Chris started.<br><br>“Don’t look at it, don’t dig into the code,” I talked over him.<br><br>“Wasn’t.”<br><br>“It’s Mama Mathers,” I said, loud enough for others to hear. - [[Pitch 6.3]]</ref>